How I Eve…

Having just missed the Great 6VDT-H Battle in Fountain being only able to reach the rear area and not actually, well, shooting anything, I was looking forward to being able to contribute a bit more in the Delve Campaign. And to some extent I have been able to in my own limited way.

However, most of the ops have been either local defense fleets batting away generally bothersome local gangs or siege fleet ops. The siege fleets are built around stealth bombers and some support ships. After arriving in Delve, I found myself wanting in the skills needed for the bombers. In a turn of classic Eve irony, my second account pilot is fully stealth bomber capable and he’s safe and sound in high sec in non-allied corporation… So if I wanted to siege and serve as something other than the ammo truck, I’d have some skilling to do.

For the defense fleets, I was also sorely lacking in the skills needed for doctrine ships too other than the odd tackler or occasional logistics ship. To get the skills needed for most of the ships here would take some skilling up too.

Between the two, I was closer to a stealth bomber than an assault frigate, so that’s the road I chose. A scant 9 or 10 days of training and I’d be there. Of course, I just managed to complete the longest skill (Caldari Frigate V) of that needed group tonight. That left just a few level I skills in other areas and I’d be minimally functional in a stealth bomber. After seeing Wilhelm’s latest sovereignty map and assuming that Eve will throw me another curve, I’ll likely just strap into my new stealth bomber and undock just about the time the Delve Campaign is over… Such is Eve.

so in order to complete my training, I had to buy and train some new skills since it was impossible to acquire them in high sec and “inject them” before I had completed the prerequisites. And with clone jumping around in null sec, I couldn’t “carry” them with me until needed without clone jumping to a location where they were and then waiting another 24 hours before I could jump back to the action.

So for the skills, a trip to high sec was in order. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a jump clone in high sec before I joined a CFC corp. And even if I did, I’d still only be able to manage one jump in 24 hours anyway. Of course, in Eve, where there is a will, there is generally a way. In my case, the pod express.

Having a jump clone at my null sec base of operations, I was able to set my medical clone for a station in high sec (conveniently the School of Applied Knowledge station in Parra, a scant 2 jumps from Jita), undock and self destruct. Poof, telemort to high sec.

Once I’m done shopping, I can jump back to my jump clone in null sec which will conveniently leave a clone in high sec. Voila!

While there, I made sure I took the time to make sure I would be able to acquire and inject any and all needed skills before I departed to avoid the inevitable Eve O Shit moment when you realize you still need that one additional skill to operate that ship/module/dingus which was the entire point of your plan to begin with.

And with Eve there is ALWAYS another skill needed. Torpedoes are a perfect example. There is a skill for the torpedo launcher (only Missile Launcher Operation Level I required), while the actual torpedoes requires training Missile Launcher Operation through Level IV, Light Missiles through Level III, Heavy Missiles through Level IV and finally, Torpedoes Level I…

And of course, with Eve’s infamous UI, getting at all that information can, well, clutter the screen a bit, hence the screen shot at the top. That’s how I Eve… in about 1 square inch of actual space. And that’s only one of two monitors I use…